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We provide context and re-assurance
Stakeholder and Public Relations
STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS
In the past six years, we have come
to appreciate the robustness of the
IMC mandate. We are convinced that
the only way Brand South Africa will
have international impact is through
reach and critical mass. Whereas
strategic and smart leveraging may
have been regarded as a “necessity”
in the past, the 2010 event makes
it an “imperative”. We took a
conscious decision in the past year
to invest more in strategic partnerships,
leveraging on synergies and coll-
aborating with stakeholders.
The following campaigns demonstrate
the extent to which leveraging was
achieved in the past year:
a. Collaboration on Trade and Investment Missions
Our key partners on strategic
missions are the Department of Trade
and Industry (the dti), Department of
Foreign Affairs (DFA), SA Tourism
and the SAT/ Provincial investment
agencies.
Under the leadership of Minister
Pahad, we collaborated with Trade
and Investment South Africa (TISA),
SA Tourism, the departments of
Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs
as well as provincial investment
agencies in facilitating a mission to
India. The objective was to streng-
then already existing India-South
Africa trade relations, but also to
pursue fresh opportunities in what
we consider to be a largely untapped
market. During this mission, we
interacted with close to 200 Indian
businesses.
b. Collaboration on Key 2010 Projects
Our key partners during this financial
year were the 2010 LOC, the GCIS
and host cities. The 2010 event has
created an opportunity for South
Africa to change the master narrative
on the continent and influence
how the world writes about us. We
identified the need to collaborate
with some of our key partners on
initiatives geared to put South Africa
on Global Agenda.
State of
Readiness
c. 2010 Projects Media Tour
The collaboration with Germany: Land
of Ideas and the City of Johannesburg
coincided with our Youth Day
celebrations in June. We benefited
from a visit by well-known European
football players in an event aimed
at displaying solidarity with South
Africa’s hosting of 2010.
We used this opportunity
to expose the media
to tangible evidence
about our state of
readiness and used endorsements by
high-calibre players to boost our PR
effort.
d. 2010 Legacy Projects Media Tour
After achieving a resounding success
with this initiative, the partnership
took a decision to sustain
our communication effort
by repeating these tours
quarterly in the period
leading up to 2010.
We took a slightly different approach
with the second tour. This time, the
focus was on the macro-economic
benefit (legacy) of the 2010 event.
Through education, we highlighted
the impact of the country’s investment
in the event, by demonstrating in a
t a n g i b l e w a y h o w l i v e s w i l l b e
changed.
e. 2010 National Communications Conference
For the second year, the annual 2010
National Communications Conference
drew significant attention from both
the media and the communications
industries. In collaboration with
the 2010 National Communication
partnership, we have established
a platform to exchange views and
ideas. This aims
to ensure commu-
nication alignment
in the next two years
leading up to the
host ing o f the
World Cup.
32
f. Strategic Partnerships
We partnered with the Newspaper
Association of South Africa and the
World Association of Newspapers
(WAN) to host an event which was
attended by editorial decision-makers,
media owners and senior executives
from 102 countries representing
18 000 newspapers. The significance
of these partner-ships for us, was in
establishing relationships which will
guarantee us immediate access to
a constituency with a broad global
footprint and significant influence.
g. Brand Champion Program
We continued with the campaign to
mobilise national pride and patriotism
by leveraging the goodwill provided by
the 2010 event. This year, we adapted
the current business model by
integrating an element of sustainability
in the program as well as utilising
mass media to reach large numbers of
people. The training model was revised
and we added a broadcast element
through which we pick up stories of
people making an effort to live and
articulate the Brand South Africa
values. These are then publicised
through the mass media for inspiration.
The new training program was piloted
at the department of Public Services
and Administration with the executive
team and front line staff, at Sports and
Recreation and at the bank services
SETA for executives from the banking
industry.
The focus for the next two years
will be on government departments
responsible for client service delivery
to enable us to impact behavior at
critical points of contact as we prepare
for the 2010 event.
WAN CONGRESS
34
PUBLIC AND MEDIA RELATIONS
A recent brand equity study valued
Brand South Africa at over R516
billion, up from R379 billion in 2003.
This figure is a measure of the selling
power of the South African brand; that
is, its ability to attract foreigners to
the country’s products, industry and
shores. The Minister in the Presidency,
Essop Pahad, attributed the rise in the
value of Brand South Africa to the work
of the International Marketing Council
of South Africa.
This value can in part be attributed to
exceptional public and media relations,
the latter generating over R6 million
worth of unweighted editorial coverage
in the last year alone.
a. Kickin it in South Africa Media Function
A very successful campaign was the
Kickin it in South Africa media tour.
The tour aimed to boost confidence
in the country’s ability to host a
successful 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The IMC served as host to take
advantage of three coinciding
events:
The launch of its new domestic
ad campaign ‘“We’ve done it
before”
A visit to South Africa by well-
known German football stars on
behalf of the Germany: Land
of Ideas Campaign (which
was responsible for branding
Germany during the 2006
FIFA World Cup); and
A stadium readiness tour
hosted by the City of
Johannesburg.
The tour, which took place on 16
June, coinciding with Youth Day,
began with a press briefing at SAFA
House (where the new IMC ad
campaign was launched), followed
by a tour of Orlando Stadium and
surrounding legacy projects, as well
as Soccer City.
The function was a major success,
as evidenced by the almost
R1 million of unweighted media
coverage generated and newspaper
headlines announcing “German
players starry-eyed at the thought of
kicking off in SA” (The Star), “Euro
stars supporting 2010 effort” (The
Citizen) and “Germany stars back
2010” (Daily Sun). It also placed
the IMC squarely in the public eye,
and reinforced the close relationship
of the IMC with key stakeholders.
b. Support for the “We’ve done it before” advertising campaign
All marketing and business media
received copies of the IMC’s latest
domestic advert “We’ve done
it before and will do it again”.
Media coverage was very positive
and included a number of high
profile articles in Business Day
– “Advertisement to inspire SA”;
Saturday Star – “Glory days are worth
remembering – IMC ad awarded an
orchid”; and Beeld – “Advertensie
skep vertroue in SA vermoë”; not to
mention radio interviews.
“German players starry-eyed at thought
of kicking off in SA” The Star
“Advertensie skep vertrour in SA vermoë”
Beeld
“Advertisement to inspire SA”Business Day
“Glory days are worth remembering”
Saturday Star
36
c. Ad with a Twist International Advertising Campaign
A media release entitled Ad with a twist urges global business to
“invest in South Africa” was issued to publicise our latest international advert, which flighted on CNN during the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2008. Media response was very positive, “‘Invest in South Africa’ ads hit CNN” (The Mercury Network) and “Advertensie op CNN wil Suid Afrika aan buiteland verkoop” (Sake 24). In addition, the commercial was uploaded onto Play24, South Africa’s own YouTube.
d. Viral Campaign
The IMC also launched a viral campaign in September 2007. Virals are short, topical and punchy e-mails on positive stories. Since inception, over thirty virals have been distributed by the IMC.At the core of the IMC’s work is building confidence nationally and internationally in the possibilities that are alive in South Africa. No better opportunity to do this was presented than the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup final in France, where South Africa was
crowned Rugby World Champion. As South Africans across the world united behind our team and celebrated victory, the IMC, through strategic media relations including an interview on SABC’s Morning Live, used the energy and optimism surrounding this event to inspire a vision amongst South Africans of what a united and confident South Africa looks like and is able to achieve.
Viral 1
The Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa is
investing a further R1.5 billion in its local
operations despite the current power supply
problems facing the country.
“We got into this investment with eyes wide
open and were aware of the power situation,”
explained Hal Federer, CEO. “It’s a long-term
and strategic investment. We view South Africa
as the gateway into Africa with a billion
people.”
Viral 2
You have it all, says Avis Charles, a fashion guru
from London. All we hear about is HIV and poverty.
We need to change people’s perceptions. “There
is an enormous amount of talent here. I’m here,
sourcing for trends, some of which are unique to
South Africa.”
“This country is sitting on a gold mine of cultural
wealth. You have everything here you need to be
succesful: the innovation, the landscape, the
beading and the culture,” says Charles.
(Based on The Weekender, January 26, 2008)
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